


A Cat's Intuition

by Lunaska



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: M/M, shalaska
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 05:06:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12005655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunaska/pseuds/Lunaska
Summary: Aaron's cat is a bit of a troublemaker, but everything works out in the end. At least he hopes so.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first post on this site. I hope y'all like it!

Justin had had it.

Officially.

As he stared at the sad pile that made up his remaining underwear, he couldn't help but feel confused.

The past three weeks had already been hell. He had been fired from his long time bar tending job at the Chili's in town and had been scrambling around trying to find a new source of income. As is to be expected in a small town, Justin was having an incredibly difficult time finding anything worthwhile. Even after he changed his resume to falsely list him as both fluent in Portuguese and ambidextrous, he couldn’t find anywhere in town that would consider him.

On top of all his personal financial stress, he kept coming home to find his already sad collection of underwear inexplicably depleting before his very eyes. It's almost as if the universe decided that the best time to give him the most unconventional of problems, was right when he couldn’t afford to replace anything. Even after carefully watching his laundry in the wash and even counting the exact number of briefs in his drawer, he could not understand how his underpants were disappearing into thin air.

He had thought through every possibility from ghosts, to a hungry possessed washing machine, but nothing made any sense. And while the idea that someone could be taking his underwear did run through his brain, he decided that those things only happen in movies. Besides, he’d lived in this apartment complex almost three years with no problems. If there truly was an underwear thief looming around the apartment complex, Justin would hope that they would refine their taste. He would never understand how his holey, five year old briefs would be a source of enjoyment for anyone.

But, even then, the possibility of a thief was nothing more than speculation.

So here he stood.

As he leaned over the seven sole survivors of his own personal underwear plague, Justin felt himself almost tear up at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

It's okay, though.

There’s no saying that tells him not to cry over missing underwear, right?

Xxxx

Aaron was used to weird.

He lived for situations, looks, and people that made absolutely no sense.

But even he had to admit that his current situation, while very unusual, was significantly less fun.

Maybe it was because he had just moved to the middle of bumblefuck nowhere to work in his uncle’s bar and grille, maybe it was because his only friend was his cat Cerrone, or maybe it was because the only love affair he could see in his immediate future was with the _giant pile of underwear invading his living room floor._

Talk about your unconventional problems.

Truthfully, he couldn’t tell you where the underpants were coming from. As far as he knew the apartment was completely empty when he moved in. The complex itself was quite nice, housing mostly friendly, quiet, and clean neighbors. Nobody who lived around him seemed like the type to prank a complete stranger.

_Well, there is that one guy Brian who lives next door?_

Aaron considered that for a second before deciding that, although the guy was odd in a very, “I’ve memorized all the dialogue to old, mediocre Jodie Foster movies” kinda way, he didn’t seem to be the culprit.

So, here he stood.

Amidst the underwear, that is.

Aaron walked over to his old beat up couch, plopping down with a defeated sigh. Regardless of the underwear’s origin, he had to get rid of it soon. It was taking up room on his rug and would be hard to explain to company, if he ever made any friends to have over as company, that is. Aaron took a last look around in search of answers, and saw nothing but a sleeping Cerrone.

For a second he considered his cat’s possible involvement, but remembered that the only times he’d seen Cerrone move in the past two days were to eat or take a shit.

He loved his cat. He was cuddly, cute, and most importantly, very lazy.

He would never have the energy to do something like this.

It was absolutely out of the question.

Xxx

Justin didn’t understand why the world wasn’t, as the kids say, “letting him breathe”.

He got a call back from the new bar that just opened across town and was scheduled for an interview at seven o'clock. The phone call alone made him take a few moments to happy dance from the sheer possibility of soon having enough money to spend on underwear, Chinese takeout, and maybe even some of that fancy whitening toothpaste that costs like four dollars.

His excitement and happiness was palpable. That is, until he reached into his sock drawer.

“Where the _fuck_ are all of my socks?” he said frantically feeling around the empty drawer as though something would pop up if he looked hard enough. It was completely empty. He had just put a load with socks in the wash, but they would never dry in time for him to put them on and make it to his interview.

Justin couldn’t think of any scenario that would cause him to lose all of his socks at once. Suddenly it dawned on him that maybe his underwear thief was open to other kinds of thievery.

He really didn't have time for this.

With the clock’s ticking rushing him, he decided to just shove his bare feet into his shoes, trying hard not to cringe at the feeling. With car keys and wallet in hand, Justin all but sprinted out the door towards the parking lot.

As he quickly made his way towards his parked car, he pulled his phone from his back pocket to spare a final glance at the time, making sure his sock situation didn’t cost him too much time.

“Fuck, i'm gonna be- _OOFFH_!” Just like that Justin’s ass hit the concrete.

Trying to ignore the pain shooting up his back, he opened his eyes and took in the sight before him. The young man, who Justin assumed was the one who ran into him, was laying on the ground across from him groaning in pain.

He was pale like he had never been out in the sun before. His hair was blonde, almost white. Even with his face contorted in pain, he was handsome in an unconventional way. Trying not to dwell on the stranger's appearance for too long, Justin took a couple relaxing breaths.He had an interview to get to - an interview that he absolutely had to excel at.

He pushed off the concrete with a groan, quickly getting to his feet and brushing off the tiny pebbles that had stuck to his hands from the ground. As Justin looked over at the other guy he noticed that he was sitting up with his hands rubbing his side.

Is that what Justin had felt collide with his elbow?

Feeling apologetic over leaving the blond with only one functioning kidney, he tried to help by gathering his stuff, which had been strewn around by the crash. Justin had grabbed an older model IPhone and a wallet off the concrete when he saw a plastic grocery bag that also probably belonged to the blond.

Justin leaned over and pulled on it from the back roughly, assuming it to be tied.

Well, you know what they say about assumptions.

Turns out it wasn’t tied and the contents of the blond stranger’s bag spilled out all over the concrete.

Justin didn’t want to be nosy, but as the small scraps of fabric flew out and littered the parking lot, he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

But, soon enough the scraps of material became more clear, the colors becoming familiar patterns and cuts that Justin had definitely seen before, until everything finally clicked.

Underwear?

Wait.

_Justin’s underwear._


	2. Chapter 2

Aaron’s ears were red.

And his neck.

And his face.

And probably everything else too.

In his haste to get rid of the small colony of underwear that had settled on his living room rug, he had made some poor decisions.

First of all, Walmart shopping bags are good for many things: acting as small trash can liners, handy helpers when you have to pick up the shit your neighbor’s dog keeps leaving on your lawn, and the classic “i’m staying at a friend’s house and don’t want my dirty clothes to touch the rest of my clothes.”

One of the things Walmart shopping bags were not known for is their stealth.

Being mildly transparent, flimsy, and noisy, they are not the best at keeping secrets.

Another important thing to take into account is that when you want to keep the contents of your grocery bags hidden, you should probably tie them shut.

Needless to say, Aaron's decision making skills were proving sub par. But, his lack of knowledge in the art of the covert didn't stop there. On his way to drop his bag of underwear off in the big trash in the parking lot, he made a crucial error: being a distracted son a bitch.

Aaron wasn’t sure the quarter he bent over to pick up was worth the embarrassment of having his bag full of underwear spill out all over the concrete. Underwear that wasn’t even his. To top all it off, it was in front of the new guy who lived right next door.

As he stared at the brunette sitting on the ground in front of him, he tried to think of any possible excuse he could use to justify what was happening.

He didn't want to be the neighborhood weirdo.

“I'm really sorry, I was just, uhm, doing some spr-”

“Is that my fucking underwear?” The other man interrupted. Though, he didn't seem as angry as he did shocked and confused.

Aaron tried to swallow the huge lump that had just formed in his throat, but it wasn't going down.

He decided to stop trying.

Choking sounded pretty good right now.

xxxx

Justin was just trying to have a normal fucking day.

Instead, he was standing across from his new neighbor, who seemed to have a penchant for stranger’s undergarments.

The man was sitting on the concrete with his scruffy blond hair in his hands.

The bag that once contained the underwear was gone with the breeze, leaving only its previous contents to color the sidewalk.

Fucking Walmart bags.

He really didn’t have enough time to process the scene before him. Even if he did have all the time in the world, he certainly didn't have the patience to deal with whatever this shit show was going to entail. The blond was now rubbing at his eyes, albeit a little too harshly.

It's really a shame that all the cute ones at this apartment complex are absolute psychos.

But he had to admit that he would pick Brian, “Do you want to come over and watch Contact with me and my cat Trixie?” McCook over the weirdo stealing his underwear.

But, back to the situation at hand.

“All I want to know is if that’s my underwear?” Justin said, gesturing to the messy pile decorating the sidewalk. “And if it _is_ mine, why do _you_ have it?”

The blond looked up at Justin, looking absolutely hopeless.

“Uh...I don’t know.”

Justin walked over to the undergarments in question and knelt to get a closer look. It took him less than ten seconds to know that this _was_ his missing underwear. He looked up at the blond who was currently running his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends like he wanted to rip them out of his scalp. He was starting to feel rather bad for embarrassing the guy. I mean, we all have our kinks, right?

He quickly looked away from the other man. He couldn’t show sympathy for someone who was actively stealing his underwear, doing God-knows-what with it, and then throwing it away.

“Look,” Justin said pointing his finger at the other man, “I don't care what you get off to but just don’t take my shit anymore, okay?”

The blond nodded.

The guy was pretty cute, especially looking all guilty.

_He steals underwear, Justin._

Focus.

He pushed off the ground with a groan and a final mildly angry look at the thief, then stalked off towards his car.

With one last look over his shoulder, he yelled “and I want my socks back too!”

xxx

Aaron couldn't find any damn socks.

He’d spent both of his days off cleaning his entire house and looking everywhere for them and found nothing but $3.78 in change and an old beanie that Cerrone had clearly taken his claws to. He was already pissed that he didn’t get a chance to explain himself and now the other man was going to think he was still stealing from him. He was hoping he’d find the socks along with the answer to why he was mysteriously receiving all of his neighbor's underwear, and maybe a couple thousand dollars.

But, no dice.

Oh well.

He couldn’t afford to dwell on his odd relationship with his neighbor, or his lack of spending money.

He was scheduled to work tonight and he really needed to make some good tips or his car was gonna have to run on imagination instead of fuel. So, as he walked into his uncle’s dusty bar and grill that evening, he tried to gather some energy.

The dark blue walls of the poorly lit restaurant were slowly becoming comforting, almost homey. Waiting tables wasn’t glamorous, but it kept Cerrone’s food bowl full and Aaron’s fridge stocked with PBR. Sparing a final grateful thought towards whoever created his drink of choice, he tied his apron and got started.

A few hours in, Aaron felt right in his element as he settled into a practiced rhythm. With the kind of grace that can only be learned over time, he juggled his tables, feeling confident in the service he was providing. He had waited tables since he was sixteen, bouncing from restaurant to restaurant learning new things every time. And now at twenty four, he felt that he could do this job in his sleep and still make more money than his co-workers.

_Extra napkins for table five._

_Table eight needs refills._

He was about to go get one of his tables their check when he was flagged down by a customer who wanted a drink from the bar. He quickly made his way to the bar area, grumbling under his breath.

The way this restaurant handled it’s drinks for tables was inconvenient, and that’s being generous.

The waiters had to go all the way to the bar and order the drinks themselves. As he grumpily made his way to the bar for the first time that evening, he took in the unfamiliar figure of the man behind the counter, who currently had his back to Aaron.

They had hired a new bartender who he had yet to meet, but word around the kitchen was that he was funny. And something else his coworkers had mentioned? Was it ambidextrous? Whatever it was, he just hoped it helped him make good drinks.

He leaned against the bar and patted the counter yelling a quick, “Hey, can I get a Long Island for my table, please?”

 As he waited for the bartender to acknowledge him, he took notice of all the people sitting at the bar. Most of them looking towards the new guy with amused expressions, others closer to him were laughing. He must be as funny as everyone said. Putting a couple of drinks in front of his small audience, he grabbed a cocktail shaker from behind the counter and turned towards Aaron with a wide smile that melted as soon as the two made eye contact.

When Aaron met his eyes he wanted to evaporate on the spot. If he had a drink, he'd have done a spit take. And if he'd had more money to his name and a more conveniently placed exit door, he would've booked it out of the restaurant so fast, he would've broken the speed limit.

It was his neighbor.

You know, the one who thinks he’s a panty thief?

The one who probably thinks that Aaron has some sort of shrine dedicated to his briefs? The brunette probably assumed that Aaron had some sort of weird underwear fetish.

Aaron had always been both gay and weird, but he’d never been an underwear thief.

At this point, he chalked most of his problems up to bad karma, or maybe he’d accidentally been rude to a witch one day and now she was ruining his life. Either way, the amount of bad luck he was experiencing was ridiculous. Aaron's neighbor, whose name tag read “Justin,” was staring at him in shock. The shaker in his hands had stopped moving and the brunette stood stiff as a board in front of him.

The atmosphere had gone from lighthearted to tense in a matter of seconds and Aaron had no clue how to fix it. So, he just looked back at the other man, waiting for him to to say something. Anything. But, the seconds passed, feeling like hours, and he knew he had to get back to his tables or his wallet would suffer. He took a quick, shaky breath and looked the other man in the eyes.

“So, uh, my name is Aaron,” He gestured to the name tag pinned onto his uniformed chest. “It’s nice to, um, see you. So, yeah, a Long Island Ice Tea for table fifteen, please.” With that, he mustered up an unconvincing smile, turned on his heel and went back to his table.

When he came back for the drink, his bar tending neighbor was at the other end of the counter again with his back turned towards him. He quickly grabbed it off the counter and walked away with a sigh of relief.

Luckily, the rest of his shift was uneventful. He only had to make a couple more trips to the bar that night and all of them were less awkward than the first, and for that he was thankful.

As he rolled silverware with a couple of his co-workers later that night, he thought back on his previous encounter with Justin. Both times Aaron had been mostly silent, not even bothering to clear his name or give the other man an explanation. Everything had happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that all Aaron could do was just stand there. He didn’t want to have an awkward relationship with someone he would obviously be seeing a lot of, so it was in his best interest to try to clear things up, and maybe even be friends with Justin.

He was determined to make things right.

Or at least make himself look less creepy.

His thoughts of redemption stayed on his mind till he clocked out that night. During the drive home, he considered what he would say and even planned a couple comebacks just in case an argument broke out, but the moment he turned the street corner that led to his apartment, all he could think of was getting home.

He sighed as he pulled into the familiar parking lot of his apartment complex.

It had been a long ass day. All he wanted was to get home, take a shower, and watch a movie on his couch with Cerrone on his lap.

He turned off his car almost giddy at the thought of having a relaxing night in. But, the possibility of that scenario fizzled out as he got out of his car and saw Justin pull into the parking lot.

He knew that he would never get another opportunity to talk to him at work. He had already spent hours thinking about what to say and there was no time like the present, right?

Aaron pushed his door open and pulled himself out of his beat up Toyota. He walked closer to where Justin was parking his car, hoping to catch him as he got out. Justin got out of his car ungracefully and slammed the door behind him. Obviously not expecting Aaron to be standing a couple feet from him in the middle of a dark parking lot.

Okay, not his best idea.

“Were you waiting for me here?” Justin said with wide eyes and a shaky voice. He had a hand over his heart and was obviously trying to catch his breath.

Aaron once again realized that this probably wasn’t the best scenario to try to convince someone that you aren’t insane or trying to stalk, kidnap, or murder them.

“Uhm, no. I just saw you pull in and i’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while,” he said, nervously combing through his hair with his fingers, “ So, I thought now would be a good time.”

Justin visibly relaxed a little, but still seemed nervous. “I already said we’re cool, dude.” Justin said, “We all have weird kinks. I just can’t afford to keep losing shit; I’m sure Brian two doors down has some great pieces for your collection, though.”

Aaron sighed nervously, “No, let me explain. I didn’t take your underwear. It just...” he started pulling at his hair again, “Kind of appeared in my living room.”

“Oh, I see. It appeared in your living room?” said Justin, clearly unconvinced.

“Yes. I don’t know how it got there.” Aaron knew it was a terrible argument from the second it left his mouth, but it was the only one he had to work with.

“Have you considered magic? Maybe David Blaine is playing a very long, overly involved magic trick on you,” Justin said, bitingly sarcastic. “And maybe I’m David Blaine, after all! I’m in a mask filming this whole thing just to embarrass you, right?”

Justin took a deep, exasperated breath, clearly about to continue his list of impossible scenarios, but Aaron quickly put his hands up in surrender.

“I know it doesn’t sound very-” Aaron stopped suddenly, almost positive that he heard… meowing?

“Cerrone?” he called into the darkness of the empty parking lot.

Justin was obviously confused, but also looked around trying to find whatever the blond was searching for.

Suddenly Aaron’s cat sauntered out from behind Justin’s car, going straight towards his favorite person.

“What are you doing outside?” asked Aaron as he gathered the kitty in his arms, “how did you even get out?”

He rubbed his cat between the ears and Cerrone purred. They were both wrapped up in their little love fest until a cough from Justin’s direction brought Aaron back to the situation at hand.

“Oh, sorry!” he looked down at the cat in his arms, “do you maybe want to talk about this at my place? I really need to get him inside.”

While he really did need to get Cerrone back home, he was also hoping that maybe showing Justin how normal his apartment was would help strengthen his argument. And after being at work for so long his feet were fucking killing him and he really wanted to sit down.

Justin shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, obviously apprehensive.

Aaron tried to muster a friendly smile, but quickly realized it probably just came off weird, so he slowly let his lips drop into their normal position. Justin seemed to think it over for a few more seconds.

With hands still in his pockets he kicked at some nonexistent rocks at his feet before uttering a quiet, “Okay.”

Okay, this was progress.

Aaron nodded, grinning excitedly before leading the way towards his apartment.

The whole walk was awkward and as he struggled to unlock his front door with one arm, as the other was holding Cerrone, he could see the hesitance on Justin’s face.

As the key turned and he pushed the door open, he only hoped for one thing

_Please don’t let there be a huge pile of this guy’s underwear sitting in my living room floor._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
